Broward School Board talks ethics reform

The Broward School Board, trying to step from under a cloud of ethical gaffes and criminal investigations, inched closer on Tuesday to proposing a districtwide ethics policy.

The goal is to have one set of rules for everybody, with subcategories for board members as well as appointees to committees.

The board considered recommendations from a 16-member committee made up of auditors, police investigators, union representatives and students. Some already being implemented are the creation of an ethics hotline and website.

"We quickly came to the resolution that there's a lot of policies already in place, for example the gift policy, that perhaps doesn't need tweaking at all but needs to end up in ethics code for all to see," said board member Kevin Tynan.

On Wednesday, the blue ribbon Broward Schools Integrity/Ethics Commission will hold its final workshop. The panel — which includes Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth — is tasked with scrutinizing the district's ethical practices with an outsider's eye.

The Board is seeing what can be done internally to strengthen the rules in place.

The district's internal ethics task force is trying to sort out such things as how to ensure the duty to report ethical breaches doesn't become a means to retaliate against an employee; how to educate employees about the rules, and how to enforce them.

Board member Stephanie Kraft said Tuesday any policy must go beyond what's already written in state law, "otherwise there's no point."

It's been almost a year since the district "first had an ethical challenge," said board member Maureen Dinnen.

In September, Beverly Gallagher, a board member who was in office at the time, was charged withaccepting a $12,500 bribe. She is now in federal prison serving 37-month sentence.

In October, an ethics complaint was filed against Kraft, alleging she misused her position to help a developer that employed her husband. That investigation continues.

The district has been under federal and state scrutiny since.

Dinnen stressed that whatever reforms are implemented must be done across-the-board and district staff must be educated about ethical standards.

Board member Jennifer Gottlieb assured her the district's ethics task force will do that with quarterly videos and the website under construction.